Hog jowl is not exotic. It is not trendy. It is not something you share a photo of, or a hashtag for clout. It is jaw meat — salted, smoked and stubborn. And it is one of the main ingredients of Hoppin’ John, a New Year’s Day dish eaten by African Americans for generations to call in luck, survival and continuity.
Hoppin’ John comes out of the rice coast of South Carolina and Georgia, where my ancestors brought deep knowledge of rice cultivation and slow cooking. Cow peas, rice and pork were not simply ingredients; they were survival strategies. The peas symbolized coins. The greens, folded in on the side, stood in for paper money. The pork — often hog jowl — was fat, flavorful and proof that even the scraps could be transformed into something sustaining.
The broader ritual of eating black-eyed peas and rice on New Year’s Day is still a cherished practice across African American communities throughout the country, with each region bringing its own distinctive meat seasoning to the dish. In the Mississippi Delta, cooks might use smoked ham hock. In Texas, it could be neck bones. In Chicago or Detroit, families who migrated north brought their own variations — salt pork, fatback or whatever cut carried the memory of home. The tradition adapts, but the meaning remains: prosperity, continuity and the turning of a new year rooted in our history…